My wonderful friend at Hope The Happy Hugger gave me a brilliant idea! Her topic today was Lists. I made a list of my 5 goals for the near future and on this list was to finish my “Dream Scape”. I have been working on this collage for a little over a year now. How it works is that when I have a dream that sticks with me after I wake up I write it down in my journal and if the images are somehow strange or disturbing I find magazine and newspaper clipping or draw images of the dream and add them to my “Dream Scape” collage. Some of my dreams include numbers or words so I write the words in an anagram so as not to betray anyon that I may dream about. I had stopped doing it for a bit, but I have found that it’s time for me to move on to another piece of work. So, my friends, it is my goal to finish up the “Dream Scape” in the next month because I have other ideas swirling around in this busy mind of mine. Here is the pic of the “Dream Scape” as it sits today. I will post more as I add more images to the collage….

Like this:

‘If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.’ — Rachel Carson

My daughter Zoe has been writing some fine poetry these last few years. I regard it as professional-grade stuff that has been born of natural talent and developed through discipline and hard work. You might ask, quite reasonably, whether my evaluation of her literary output is skewed by fatherly pride. I’ve considered that possibility. But recently, my opinion got unbiased corroboration when her school awarded her with the “All-College Honor” for her poetry manuscript. I predict you will soon have a comparable experience. Your views or theories will be confirmed by an independent and objective source.

Ok Rob, I am sure there is some deeply intrinsic yet cosmic purpose behind this weeks astrology. I didn’t understand the last one until I found a $5 bill on the ground either, but hey, who am I? Maybe this is your way of telling me that I am going to get unasked for kudos on my music, maybe someone will suddenly appreciate my artwork…Who knows, but whatever it is, I Like It!

An article in the Weekly World News reported on tourists who toast marshmallows while sitting on the rims of active volcanoes. As fun as this practice might be, however, it can expose those who do it to molten lava, suffocating ash, and showers of burning rocks. So, I wouldn’t recommend it to you, Aquarius. But I do encourage you to try some equally boisterous but less hazardous adventures. The coming months will be prime time for you to get highly imaginative in your approach to exploration, amusement and pushing beyond your previous limits. Why not get started now?

So, I suppose dancing on an electrified tightrope with wet ballet slippers is out of the question? Well, ok, being serious now. It’s ironic that Rob should bring this up because just this week I have started on a dream collage. I have been having some very bizarre dreams this last week and when I wake I commit them to my journal. I have then started sketching in the details of the dreams on a large painting. I have begun sketching in the ones that are most vivid and strange and I am going to continue with adding in magazine and newspaper cutouts, written word and other things that seem to stick out. This is my first collage, and my first exploration into an understanding of my dream world.

Inspiration Deficit Disorder is about losing your vitality and purpose, and forgetting your original source of love and potential. It’s about the cost of being disconnected and unaware of your own unique talents, needs, and destiny. Jonathan H. Ellerby

This has been an incredible week of creativity in my house and I am sooooo loving it! I have completed yet another drawing, this time of an abstract in multi-media. My husband and I went for a bike ride on Monday, it was such a beautiful day!

As as we were headed to lunch I spotted this very cool piece of disintegrating graffiti on a garage. I ran home and grabbed the camera and took a pic so I could sketch it later.

Among other things, I have finally figured out how to post our music on youtube, If that wasn’t an adventure! So you will be seeing/hearing some of our youtube songs/videos posted on my blog. Hope you enjoy. My daughter always has 10 times more creative energy than I do. She painted this skull and roses last night and I absolutely love it!

I love it when creative energy flows! Now, if that’s not enough Kira has a new boyfriend, Isaiah. He’s a very cool person. He is learning to play guitar, and I think that’s just what this family needs is one more guitar player. We already have 3 so what’s one more?

We are gearing up to play the Farmer’s Market and Kira, my daughter, has agreed to play with me since Mike can’t do it because he’s working in Elko, so the next weeks are going to be really full teaching her to play about 60 songs, some originals and some covers. It will be a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to it. This will be Kira’s first time playing live in front of a crowd. I know she’s nervous but she has such an amazing personality I know she will be fabulous! SO any way…enough bout that! Here is our song from youtube “Smile on Your Brother” It’s a cover we did of The Youngbloods…Enjoy!

“I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world.” (Sadako Sasaki)

Please take the time to click this link and read The story of the Peace Crane It’s a beautifully sad tale about a little girl, Sadako Sasaki, that I found very touching.

This is my first drawing in the longest time. I have finally gotten back into the swing of doing some art work again and the first charcoal drawing I did was of this Asian Crane. I found the illustration of “The Farmer and the Cranes” in a book I have of Aesop’s Fables. Cranes are symbols of longevity and a rise to a higher status. This is a good starting point for me to begin doing art work again. It’s symbolic of my rise from a very deep, dark place into the light of a love so rich and filled with truth. A rise from ignorance to understanding of my own nature and the nature of those closest to me. A rise from stagnancy to motion. It is a very reinforcing image for me and I will carry it with me like the Crane carries beauty and peace on its wings, rising ever higher in the skies of love and serenity.

They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ‘Shit, it’s raining!’

Ok, WTF. I went to the store last night and here comes that damn murder of crows. What is the deal?! Just when I think I finally am at peace things just get tossed. I feel like someone is trying to pull me into a twisted knot like a pretzel. I just wrote, not so long ago, about the “Omen of Crows”. I don’t seem to be able to escape those black bastards. I really wish they would stop following me. They seemed to be travelling the same direction I was travelling as if to tell me, “Stop! Don’t go that way!” Maybe I put to much cadence in nature but I can’t help myself because I believe nature has it’s own way of resolving issues, selective evolution and all that crap. I love Buddha, very much, but he really has to stop sending me messages. Nature has it’s own way of speaking to us and if we listen very carefully we can hear every subtle message it sends, although at times too painful to hear, so we choose to ignore what is blatantly in front of us. Maybe I am being so blind that I just refuse to hear or see what is right in front of me biting me right on the nose.

“Here’s one of my favorite quotes from American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you think.” The current astrological omens suggest that this is an excellent message for you to heed. It’s crucial for you to know your own mind and speak your own thoughts. It’s smart to trust your own instincts and draw on your own hard-won epiphanies. For best results, don’t just be skeptical of the conventional wisdom; be cautious about giving too much credence to every source of sagacity and expertise. Try to define your own positions rather than relying on theories you’ve read about and opinions you’ve heard.”

This is what my Free-Will astrology said for the week. It is reiterating a basic truth that is taught by Buddha. It goes like this, do not believe anything you read or hear just because another has said it or wrote it down. You must take all words, whether oral or written, digest them into your being and decide for yourself what you feel is empirically true. Do not follow a path in ignorance simply because another said it was so. You must understand these things and by your nature and determinism decide if they are true or not. To do other wise would be the blind following the blind and the one who leads in ignorance is the Sheppard and his flock is sure to fall off the same cliff of obliviousness.